It started with my daughter’s picture day.

I’m Leah O’Connell, and Photo Chalk started with my own daughter. She came home from her preschool picture day with photos that just weren’t her: nervous, squinting, tense around a stranger with a camera. She looked scared, not like the joyful kid I knew. It was a little heartbreaking, and it stuck with me.

At the time I’d spent five years as a family photographer, looking for a way to grow locally without living on social media or pouring money into events. So I tried something different: a warmer, more natural take on school photos, shot outdoors and built around how kids actually are. A local group of daycares reached out, and I never looked back. Ten years later, I photograph small and mid-sized private schools, daycares, and alternative schools all over my area.

Over the last year, it became impossible to ignore how much has changed around children’s privacy: protecting kids’ images, respecting parent consent, and juggling permissions between schools, parents, and the photographer. Everyone deserves to be protected, and the whole process, from communication to ordering to printing, needed to be simpler.

So I built Photo Chalk to bring the whole workflow full circle: one warm, safe system that runs school photography from first hello to prints in families’ hands. It’s made for photographers like me, independent, often juggling this alongside family and other work, who want a real way into school photography without piecing together a dozen tools. The app is free to use, I only earn when you do, and my hope is to help local photographers thrive while making every kid feel seen and loved.

What we believe

• Independent photographers deserve to thrive, not be squeezed by corporate platforms.
• Every child should feel seen and loved on picture day.
• Picture day can be natural, warm, and real.
• Kids’ privacy and parent consent come first, always.
• The math is always shown plainly, up front.